North End, Boston

The North End is a small neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The district was established as early as 1646, and it is the oldest residential community in Boston. The North End became a fashionable place to live in the 18th century, and it experienced a significant amount of commercial development during the first half of the 19th century. During this time, the neighborhood developed a red-light district, the "Black Sea" (North Street). By the 1840s, living conditions in the crowded North End were among the worst in the city, and successive waves of immigrants settled in the neighborhood. The waves of immigration began with the Irish and continued with Eastern European Jews and Italians. In 1859, tensions between the Catholic Irish immigrants and the existing Protestant community led to unrest at public schools (which were run by Protestants) and the creation of several Catholic parochial schools. In the 1880s, North Enders began to replace the dilapidated wooden housing with brick apartment buildings, and the district came to be dominated by Jews and Italians in the early 20th century. The neighborhood was devastated by the Spanish flu in 1918 and a molasses flood in 1919, and, in the 1950s, the creation of the "Central Artery" freeway isolated the North End from Downtown. During the 1960s and 1970s, the North End experienced population loss, and many neighborhood shops closed, two churches closed, the waterfront industries either relocated or went defunct, and high-rise, high-density housing projects and affordable housing for the elderly were built in the North End. During the late 20th century and early 21st century, the Big Dig project was initiated to replace the Central Artery, and the construction process made it difficult to access the North End, leading to many businesses closing. In 2010, the North End had a population of 10,131 people.